Skip to content
The Archive of The Carrboro Citizen
Menu
  • Home
  • News
  • Community
  • Schools
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Obituaries
  • Sports
  • Mill
  • Flora
  • Print Archive
  • About
Menu

Budgets, taxes and you

Posted on May 12, 2011May 12, 2011 by Staff

Carrboro is lucky to have long had a town manager with his feet firmly planted on planet earth. It’s unlucky, though, that his recent budget presentation is also his last, since he’ll retire later this year.

Steve Stewart understands that times are tough for many, even in our relatively affluent community. He knows that there’s no real relief in sight, so the budget he brought to the board of aldermen last week was his third consecutive one without a tax increase.

But what about the future? While Stewart says he’s working to enable his successor to present a budget without a tax increase next year, he cautions that expenses are such that a revenue increase will likely soon be needed.

There’s the rub. Obtaining that revenue without raising taxes would require an expansion of our tax base. Since the economic recovery that would allow such an expansion is proceeding at a glacial pace, one has to wonder if the tax base we have now is what we’re going to have for years to come.

Multiple projects have been approved for Carrboro’s downtown, and, if we’re lucky, we may see the hotel and parking deck components of the 300 East Main project break ground later this year. But three other building projects seem to be on indefinite hold, and all bets are off as to when or if they’ll materialize.

Which leads this discussion to you, the taxpayer. Without a growing commercial tax base, the burden will continue to fall increasingly on your shoulders. So you need to think seriously about how you want your town to spend your money.

The board of aldermen has a public hearing on the proposed budget every year, but attendance is often surprisingly low. This year’s hearing will be held Tuesday, May 24. Since this is your chance to let your leaders know what you want in the way of expenditures for your town, don’t miss it.

Season of the tick
It almost feels like a plague is upon us. That insidious little creature, the tick, seems to be everywhere we turn. Ticks fall from the trees, they crawl up from the grass and they catch a ride into the house on your dog.

Leapt up from the bed at 3 a.m. lately to remove one of the nasty things? Yes, we have too. Still scratching that bite from two weeks ago? You’re not alone. Most everyone has a tick story these days.

Little ones or big ones, ticks seem to be inescapable unless you’re wearing a space suit or have bathed in DEET.

Statistically, only one in 1,000 ticks in our area carries Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Those sound like pretty good odds, until you consider how many millions of ticks there must be in our little slice of the Piedmont right now. And since a neighbor had a nasty go with the fever just a few days ago, the possibility of meeting the wrong tick doesn’t seem that far-fetched anymore.

The moral of this story? Examine yourself daily, and check or treat your pets frequently. And to steal from an old song, check the one you’re with.

Web Archive

© 2025 The Archive of The Carrboro Citizen | Powered by Minimalist Blog WordPress Theme